Getting a dog

I would love to get a mini schnauzer, but I want to be prepared well before. I love what I hear about them, and I am trying to get a young one that I can raise and educate myself. However, there are issues: I never owned a dog before and I have a 5 pound (real small, runt of the litter) persian cat. She is loving and sweet with everyone but the doctors (she was sick when I got her a few years ago). She has probably never seen a dog before in her life. I know that she may be happy to have a companion because she actually meaws when she sees a toy in the shape of a baby furry cat (serioulsy). This could be explained by the fact that when I went to get her, she had many, many brothers and sisters and other kittens aroung. The playing that was going on there is hard to describe...it was great. As far as I am concerned, I think that since I plan to have a puppy, I'm thinking that he will probably get used to the cat...but the safety of the puppy (since he would be so young and my cat is not declawed- and I will never do it) and for the cat not to be overly stressed. My overwhelming concern is: I want happy pets. Can anyone give me some opinions please. I have seen many friends having a house full of pets getting along with each other, I think it might be possible, but I don't know.

when you bring puppy home, limit contact with kitty at first. Keep the pup in a separate room (not one of kitty's favorite areas) for a few days and let kitty get use the smell and the fact that it is there. Then try to separate them my a screen or baby-gate, so they can see each other, but cant get to each other. Keep an eye on how they take to each other and slowly integrate puppy into kitty's turf. Make sure you give kitty lots and lots of attention during this time too so she know that she is not being replaced or forced to give up her turf. Kitty will probably establish herself as Alpha pretty quickly, since she was there first. Keep her claws trimmed, and let her take a whack at the pup if he gets too rough playing. It's the only way he will learn. They will generally set their own boundries with one another, so don't sweat it, and enjoy your new addition to your fur-family.

Ummm...NO because she wants help introducing a dog to her Persian cat. Read all the words. I realize it's hard for you Catclyde but if you have nothing useful to contribute to a thread when somebody really needs help, then just shut up and move on.

Deema- Just make sure kitty has a safe haven to get away from the dog like a cat tree to climb up on. Make sure her potty is where she feels safe from the dog so she won't stop using it. Feed her and give her water away from him. My dog was here first but now I have 3 persians (soon to be 4) and one even shares his bed sometimes. It was probably easier for me because the dog was here first and my cat's breeder had 2 large dogs so my kittens knew about dogs. But my friend has recently added a Labradoodle to her house with a small 12 year old persian and the cat just learned to avoid the drool and craziness that the puppy brought. She might not be as happy as she is before you get the dog, but your kitty can adjust.

When all else fails, run like the wind kitty! Nah, just kidding, but MaxandAllie is totally right. Another thing I heard that helps, before in person intro's are made, someone told me that bringing a blanket or something the dog has used for the cat to sniff at helps them get use to the idea of the dog. It helped them alot. My cat was easy to acustom to a dog because he was big, the dog was small, and if puppy got out of line, Little Foot would just give him a good whack with his paw.

Yeah...Peaches, he wants me to apologize, not you. So here you go CatClyde: I am sorry you are such an obtuse and ignorant person. I am sorry that you speak up even when you know nothing. I am sorry that the meerkat people are not keeping you occupied enough so that you can leave the advice for cat owners up to the ADULTS who actually know something about caring for cats.

Hey Rainbowzoo...these little girls have stolen my heart but I will stop at 4 because the vet care alone is killing me. (since people like us insist upon spaying them, keeping them in the house, keeping them for their entire lifetime, etc. LOL) So you're still in the lead and the way those lost souls keep finding you to save them, I'm sure there will be many more in your future.

Deema- sorry your thread is now peppered with idiotic crap that has nothing to do with your question. Please read the real replies because some of us really do want to help.

Great Help! Thank you all, your opinions make total sense. I am sure that if I play my cards right, I will have a nice happy pet family, just a little more animated. My hope is that kitty will love the new puppy eventually, although I am sure it will not be easy. I have no doubt that the cat will be ok, I think the puppy might bet a good slap sometimes.

Hey, you never know, the puppy might grow up thinking it's a cat. I had a cat that thought he was a dog. He would hike his leg to pee and everything. One of our other people here, I don't remember who it was but it is on the "Crazy kitty behavior" thread, has a cat that will hold their dog down and groom them. Once they get use to each other I am sure they will be great friends.

Maxandallie - Four is a good number. We wanted to stop at four. Calla was my silliness, and Claudia literally ran us down in the street. I told her "Go away, we don't want any more kitties!" because at that point we had already paid for Albie and was set to go get him the following weekend, so it was a horrible time to be letting in a pregger stray cat. But she had us pegged as suckers, and once we let her in, what else were we suppose to do with her? Before we moved, we lived in a town for about 3 years with a great cat rescue and capture/release program, and in kitten season we'd help catch 2 or 3 pregger cats and/or litters and/or stray kittens a year and foster them until an opening came up. Also caught a few tomcats for the capture/release program. Here we don't have anything like it. Its the humane shelter, which is always full and only animal control is allowed to make drop offs, or there one no-kill shelter which is always full, and on rare occasion it is not, you pay $70 to drop off a cat. Luckily with Rizzo, it is easier to find a good home for a purebred yorki dog than a bipolar hormonal cat!

Anyway, Rainbowzoo, doesn't it always seem that the cats know who the suckers are? My sis moved into a new place with a prego cat that the owners left because they couldn't catch her to take her to a shelter, but as soon as my sis moved in, she walked right in the front door like she owned the place and made a nice little nest to have her kittens in my sis's bedroom. Somehow they just know when someone loves kitties enough to not be able to say "no". That is the litter I got my two babies from. MommaKat didn't mind at all when I took them. She even didn't mind when I took her to get spayed last week (my sis couldn't afford it so I took care of it). I didn't even have to put her in a carrier, she just curled up on the passenger seat and watched me drive. The previous owners decribed her as feral and unaffectionate, but they were hillbilly A-holes that didn't know how to properly care for animals. Cats just know when someone loves them.